A tax glitch which could leave more
than 250,000 families up to $122 a
week out of pocket will be fixed, Prime
Minister John Howard promised today.

But the opposition demanded the federal
government accept responsibility for the
blunder.

The government has admitted child care
centres have been sent mistake-riddled
family assessments by Centrelink, leaving
the new Child Care Benefit in chaos with just two
days to go until the GST.

The National Association of Community-
based Children's Services said
Centrelink's computer system was listing
babies as school-age children and providing
incorrect information to child care providers.

"It really is a disaster," convenor Lynne
Wannan said, adding she had no idea how
the government blundered so badly.

Opposition families spokesman Wayne
Swan said the error would start costing
parents from this weekend when the GST
came into effect.

"Although the government has said it
will backdate the child care benefits, the
disaster could leave families with one
child up to $122 per week out of pocket
until the system is fixed," he said in a
statement.

Mr Swan said the problems were occurring
across Australia, with some centres
finding up to 90 per cent of families
were missing from their data systems.

Australian Finacial Review

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), July 01, 2000